A Beethoven cycle concludes with a flourish
The Strad Issue: October 2025
Description: A Beethoven cycle concludes with a flourish
Musicians: Viktoria Mullova (violin) Alasdair Beatson (fortepiano)
Works: Beethoven: Violin Sonatas: no.2 in A major, no.10 in G major
Catalogue number: SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD920
Viktoria Mullova here completes her exploration of Beethoven’s violin sonatas, using a gut-strung violin and period bow and introducing her characteristic mix of historical and more recent performing techniques.
Alasdair Beatson is her admirable partner, playing a reproduction 1805 Walter piano for op.12 no.2 and an 1819 Graf copy for the more colourful, expressive op.96.
Their perceptive interpretations express these works’ full gamut of emotions from introspection to humour. Alert and acutely responsive to each other, they introduce mostly well-calibrated dynamics, including fully weighted sfzs and sfps, although the mezza voce reprise in op.96’s second movement seems pianistically overcooked.
Tempos are largely well judged, but some semiquaver passages à deux in op.12 no.2’s opening movement come across as somewhat garbled.
Among countless delights, listeners will savour this duo’s largely relaxed rendition of op.96’s opening movement; Mullova’s beautiful cantabile and subtle nuancing in op.96’s calm Adagio espressivo; Beatson’s careful spreading of appropriate chords in the slow movements of both sonatas and his occasional introduction of ornamentation in repeated material, as in op.12 no.2’s rondo finale; and their imaginative reading of the expressive Adagio within op.96’s otherwise spirited final variation movement.
The clear, spacious recording is well balanced, but its 42-minute duration raises inevitable questions about value for money.
Robin Stowell
No comments yet